Many electronic devices include embedded systems with central processor units (CPUs) to control the operation of the devices providing greatly enhanced functionality and operational flexibility. An embedded system can include firmware (a combination of persistent memory and program code and/or data stored in the memory) that provides a control program for the electronic device.
A virtual machine can be embedded in the firmware, which is a software emulation of a machine environment (e.g., a computer system) that executes applications and operations like a physical machine. For example, a virtual machine can emulate architecture and functions of a computer platform to allow cross-platform execution of applications or operations. The CPU executes the virtual machine, including a software component of the virtual machine that processes instructions corresponding to a virtual machine instruction set. The execution of the virtual machine with all of its components can be resource intensive and create processing overhead for the CPU, such as an ARM architecture CPU. In addition, the ARM architecture has included the capability to directly execute Java bytecode in some implementations.